EXECUTIVE SEARCH Marketing Management | CONSUMER HEALTHCARE & OTC Pharma
Appointment for Marketing Director Consumer Healthcare (CHC):
Consumer Health Brand Strategy: How a traditional OTC pharmaceutical brand portfolio was transformed into love brands with new marketing leadership.
Market segment
OTC Pharma & Consumer Healthcare
MANDATE
Marketing Director (Pharmacy-Consumer Health Brands)
ENVIRONMENT
Medium-sized OTC pharmaceutical company with >500 employees
STATUS
Exclusive Direct Search Mandate
REGION
Germany
Impact
Rejuvenation of the customer target group
Double-digit growth
Initial situation
A medium-sized German pharmaceutical company with an established portfolio of herbal and chemically defined OTC medicines. Several traditional brands with high brand recognition among pharmacists, but stagnant sales to end consumers. Distribution is handled through a pharmacy sales force and increasingly via mail order. Over 500 employees.
The company possessed brands with decades of market presence and proven effectiveness. Marketing communications were entirely based on scientific evidence. Package insert logic dominated campaigns and point-of-sale materials. The language was directed at the pharmacist as the gatekeeper, not at the end consumer as the decision-maker.
At the same time, new D2C brands in the dietary supplement segment gained massive market share through emotional appeals and aggressive performance marketing. These brands operated with a fraction of the clinical evidence, but surpassed traditional brands in visibility, digital reach, and brand loyalty.
The existing marketing management team came from a traditional pharmaceutical background. Regulatory compliance was impeccable. However, there was a complete lack of expertise in emotional brand management, digital activation, and cross-channel campaign management. Management recognized that the problem lay not in the product itself, but in the way it was communicated.
The challenge
New appointment to the management of marketing and brand communication with the aim of positioning established OTC brands as love brands in the perception of end consumers, without violating regulatory guidelines.
Development of a job profile in close coordination with management and regulatory affairs. Identification of candidates who combine commercial FMCG thinking with an understanding of the regulatory specifics of the pharmaceutical market. A particular requirement: sensitivity to an established corporate culture characterized by long-term employee loyalty and a strong commitment to quality.
Our Executive Search Approach
Andris Consulting deliberately did not prioritize the traditional pharmaceutical candidate market. The search focus was on executives from the FMCG and cosmetics sectors who had already worked in regulated markets or demonstrably showed a willingness to familiarize themselves with the pharmaceutical environment.
Through direct search and targeted activation of passive candidates, profiles were identified that combined three core competencies: experience in building emotional brand worlds, demonstrable success in performance marketing and digital campaign management, and a basic understanding of regulatory restrictions in product communication.
In the selection process, Andris Consulting also employed a personality assessment based on the Big Five model. The conscientiousness factor served as an indicator of whether a candidate with an FMCG background would perceive the regulatory discipline of the pharmaceutical market not as a hindrance, but as a framework for action. Simultaneously, the cultural fit with the existing team was systematically evaluated to minimize the risk of a culture clash between the pace of FMCG and the pharmaceutical culture of diligence.
Result
The position was filled within ten weeks. The new head of marketing implemented a complete relaunch of the flagship brand within the first year. For the first time, the campaign combined clinical evidence with emotional imagery and cross-channel distribution across pharmacy POS, social media, and online retail platforms. There were no regulatory objections or warnings whatsoever.
The company recorded a measurable increase in brand awareness while simultaneously expanding its end-consumer target group to include younger consumers and double-digit growth in the mail-order channel, driven primarily by its first-ever collaboration with health influencers on Instagram.